Les Expos Redux Starting in 1982

[Highlander]

The Expos had quite a history before moving to Washington to become the Nationals. Some incredible players went through Montreal, many starting there, but they were never able to put it all together to win a World Series like their Canadian counterparts were able to do. I thought about starting the team right from the start of Expos history, but when I first started doing baseball sims, it was playing Stratomatic Baseball and one of the teams that came with my version of the game was the 1982 Expos and I loved using them....especially Al Oliver. He was fantastic in that game. So, I decided to start the Expos replay there and see what happens.

A few notes with how I am doing this. First, I play out all games so it won't move super fast. I may report out each series or maybe just each month...we'll see. I am using Career mode, so players may surprise with how good/bad they are compared to real life. Also, taking a page from luckymann and his great franchise do-overs, I am really going to try to limit myself to acquiring players who played for the Expos at some point in their careers. I'm thinking I'll try to stick to a limit of 4 "non-Expos" on a given team....two position players and two pitchers. Anyone who starts in the Expos farm system is also eligible, so if someone was drafted by Montreal but debuted with another team and never came back to the Expos, they could still be part of my teams.

I always get carried away with trying to report too much of what is happening around the league, so I am vowing to keep my focus on Montreal and mix in the rest of the league only when it is important. I'll mention things in the recaps when it makes sense as well.

Next up, a look at the Opening Day roster for the 1982 Expos!

[luckymann]

Looking forward to this one bud, a fascinating franchise that doesn't get much attention in the replay sector. Hope it goes well.

G

[Highlander]

SP1 Steve Rogers- Maybe we should call him "Captain Canada"? Rogers is coming off a string of very good seasons and at age 32 he should have a few more in him. After 19 wins and a 2.40 ERA in his real 1982 season, he is a worthy #1.

SP2 Woody Fryman- Only a few days from his 42nd birthday, I'm not sure if Woody will stay effective all season, but right now he looks poised to put up another strong season. He won't blow anyone away, but he is almost impossible to hit HR against....just 2 over his last 123 IP the past two seasons! He actually worked as a reliever in 1982, but he has plenty of stamina to be a starter so we are going to try him in the rotation.

SP3 Bill Gullickson- Only 23, he is coming off a great season in 1981. If Fryman starts to drop off, Bill should be ready to step in as a #2 guy.

SP4 Scott Sanderson- At 25, he's another young arm in this rotation who is coming off a nice season. He's a little more hittable than Gullickson but has great control. He has some room to develop, as well, so I am hopeful he can get better as the season goes on.

SP5 Charlie Lea- Another 25 year old, Lea wasn't great last year, but his real 1982 started off a string of 3 very good seasons, so he may be ready to take a big step up. If Sanderson doesn't develop, Lea could easily be a #4 guy and maybe even a #3 if things go well.

LR Bill Lee- The Spaceman is nearing the end of his career...1982 was actually his real life final season. He actually pitched pretty well last season and, while he will get hit, he has pinpoint control. We'll only see him if a starter gets bombed or if we get out to a huge lead.

MR/Lefty Specialist Dave Tomlin- Dave has been a reliever in the league since the early 70's and has had some solid years. He's heading towards the end of his real life career and the skills have devolved quite a bit. He can still be tough on lefties, though, so he will get a little work in that role and/or help Lee when the game is out of hand.

MR Bryn Smith- Unlike the last two guys, 26 year old Smith is at the start of his real life career. He later develops into a very good starter in real life, but will start in the bullpen for us....hopefully that development happens here, though. He should be effective to cover those middle innings in a closer game.

SU Dave Palmer- Dave has mostly worked as a starter in the league and a 24 he's actually been around since he was 21. We kind of flip/flopped him and Fryman but could easily move them back if it makes sense. I'm hoping Palmer can be a good set up guy and pitch more often with his strong stamina from starting.

SU Bob James- Bob has incredible stuff but often doesn't know where it's going. Later in his career he develops into a great closer for the White Sox, but we'll see what he does here. I'm hoping he can avoid the walks enough to be a good reliever for us and strike some guys out, but he will have a short leash for sure.

CL Jeff Reardon- The Terminator is one of the best closers in the game. He's only 26 and is signed for a couple more years. He's in his prime and should pretty much guarantee a victory if we have a late lead.

There isn't much in AAA for pitching right now. Ray Burris got a lot of innings in real life this season, but he was pretty ineffective- 4-14 with a 4.73 ERA. Tom Gorman is the closer in AAA and he could be used as another lefty in our pen if James or one of the other guys falters. Gorman won't be great, but can probably fill a hole pretty well. There's a couple of other possibilities, but no big stars in the waiting.

[Highlander]

C Gary Carter- The Kid is a HOF catcher who will play as much as possible and hit in the middle of the order. He's one of our stars.

1B Al Oliver- At 35, Al had one of his best seasons of his career in 1982....a .331 BA, 42 doubles, 22 HR and 109 RBI. We may not have him at this level for long, but he should be fun to watch this season. He's also the leader of this team and is greatly respected by everyone.

2B Frank Taveras- 1982 is Frank's last season of his real life career. He hit very poorly and didn't play much, but his bat imports at a decent level here and he plays solid defense at 2B. Rodney Scott was the other choice, but his defense is horrible.

3B Tim Wallach- At 24, Tim is just getting started on what is a pretty solid career. He hit 28 HR with 97 RBI in 1982, so hopefully he can reach that level here.

SS Chris Speier- Chris debuted at age 21 way back in 1971 and had been a steady SS his whole career. He's got a fairly weak bat- only a .677 OPS for 1982, but he is a very solid fielder at SS and certainly doesn't kills us at the plate.

LF Andre Dawson- Another HOFer who might seem to be in a strange spot in the OF. His CF defense is pretty poor and it works out that LF makes out OF defense the best it can be. Andre can do it all...run, hit HR, etc. He's another star for sure.

CF Tim Raines- Other than Rickey Henderson, the best leadoff hitter of his generation and one of the best ever....and a HOFer. He didn't usually play CF, but his defense there is much better than Dawson. On base ability, steals and will hopefully develop that bit of power he showed later in his career. He, Andre and Gary are a great core to build this team around for sure.

RF Warren Cromartie- A pretty underappreciated player because of the two superstars he played with, Warren could play all 3 OF spots really well, has a strong arm and really hits RHP. His bat against lefties isn't great, but not bad enough to take him out.

The Bench- Tim Blackwell is the back up catcher and he fits that role pretty well. Decent bat, good eye and average defense.

Ken Phelps will back up at 1B and be a big power bat off the bench to PH. His contact ability leaves a lot to be desired, but he will draw walks and has huge power. A lottery ticket for sure.

Rodney Scott can play all over the field, but plays bad defense everywhere. He's got incredible speed and base stealing ability and will draw walks, but the rest of his game isn't great. Not sure how much he will play....depends on the rest of the team and the dreaded injury bug.

Chris Smith only had about 75 career AB but he brings some solid batting skills here. His defense hasn't developed at any position, but there is good potential there too. He may work his way into a meaningful role by season's end.

John Milner brings a good OF glove and some ability to play 1B. He's similar to Phelps, giving us a great eye and some good power with low contact ability. I'm sure he will see time due to his on base ability and solid defense.

Finally, we have Jerry White who is another OF with a strong glove, good speed and a good eye.

Our AAA roster has some decent options to fill in if needed at a variety of positions....Terry Francona, Bryan Little, Brad Mills and Wallace Johnson among others could all make at least some impact.

[Highlander]

Originally Posted by luckymann

Looking forward to this one bud, a fascinating franchise that doesn't get much attention in the replay sector. Hope it goes well.

G

Thanks! I almost didn't go the career replay route since I want to see what some guys could do if they stayed longer. Hopefully Randy Johnson doesn't flame out on me!!

[Highlander]

We will have some work to do developing our minor league system based on where things stand now. I know there are good guys on the way in the future, but right now we are one of a couple of teams with 0 players in the top 100. I'm a little surprised, as we do have Andres Galarraga as our #1 guy, but at this point his 4-star potential isn't enough to get him to the top 100 I guess. P Joe Hesketh is probably the next best guy and it goes downhill fast from there. Hopefully more to report in this category as time goes on!

[Highlander]

I won't usually report on individual games, but this one was worthy. It was Steve Rogers on the mound for the Expos against John Candelaria of the Pirates. Both pitchers were on top of their games and the game ended up with a 1-0 score.....unfortunately it was the Pirates that were on the winning side. The Candy Man went 7.1 innings and Kent Tekulve finished it up for the save. Rogers went the distance and his one blemish was a solo HR. You might guess it was by Willie Stargell, Dave Parker, Jason Thompson (who hit 31 in 1982), Mike Easler or one of a couple other power hitters on the Pirates, but it was none other than Omar Moreno who did the damage! Omar, who hit a whopping 3 HR in 645 AB in 1982!! Gotta love baseball.

[Highlander]

After the 1-0 loss on Opening Day, things didn't get much better for the Expos. Game 2 against the Pirates saw Rick Rhoden hold the Expos to 1 run in a 5-1 win.

A trip across the state was on tap next with a 3 game series against the Phillies. The bats finally woke up in game 1 of this series, with 6 runs behind a 4-5 game by Rodney Scott in his first game and 3 runs for Tim Raines. The problem is that after 9 innings, the Phillies also had 6 runs so the game went to extra innings. A walk by Reardon led the inning off, but a couple of groundouts got him within reach of extending the game. A throwing error by Tim Wallach ruined that, though as the winning run scored on the error and the Expos found themselves starting the season 0-3.

Game 2 of the Philly series had some pressure....we really didn't want to start out 0-4. On the mound, it was Scott Sanderson against the newly signed Rick Reuschel. We were down 7-5 in the 9th inning, but a pinch hit 2-out, 2-run double by John Milner sent the game to extra inning again. This time it was a Phillies error that gave us the game, as Gary Matthews (who for some reason is playing 1B) booted one to let Warren Cromartie score the winning run. Jeff Reardon got the win.

Game 3 saw a great pitching matchup by the two "Steves"....Rogers for us and Carlton for them. It seemed like we were in for a low scoring game, but the bottom of our order really got to Carlton. Chris Smith got a start at 1st and went 4-4, Speier went 3-4 with 2 RBI and Frank Taveras also drove in 2 runs to lead us to a 6-3 win. Rogers got the win and Reardon got the save. We tried Bob James since Jeff had pitched 2 games in a row, but he was on the brink of getting really beat up so Jeff came in to rescue him.

On the subject of James, he has gotten off to a horrible start. He's only pitched 1.2 innings but has already walked 4 batters and given up 2 hits and 3 ER. Not someone I feel like we can trust until his control shows some improvement. With that in mind, we made a trade for a bullpen arm. We sent minor league OF Roy Johnson to the Astros for P Bert Roberge. Bert was an Expo in 1985-86 in real life, so he is an eligible player for us to acquire. We don't have a lot of great assets to trade right now, so hopefully Roberge can just be a stabilizing force in the pen to help bridge the gap to Jeff Reardon. Our scout sees him as an average reliever with 3 solid pitches. He still has some control issues, but nothing like James.

Up next, we face the Pirates again, this time 2 games at home, and then travel to NY for 3 against the Mets.

[Highlander]

We got another crack at Rick Rhoden of the Pirates in this first game of the week and Woodie Fryman did his best to make sure we made it count. Fryman pitched 7 shutout innings with 8 Ks and a 3 run 7th inning helped us to a 4-1 win. Bert Roberge pitched the last two innings, and while he did give up a run, he was a definite upgrade over James based on what I saw.

Game #2 of the Pirate series (again of a 2 game series) was not good for us. Bill Gullickson is off to a rough start and got lit up for 6 runs (5 earned) in just over 2 innings. Bill Lee cam in and pitched 5.1 solid innings, giving up 2 runs, but it was just too much for our offense to catch up to today. The Expos lost 8-2. Frank Taveras hit a solo HR in the game which is notable for two reasons....first, previous to this HR, he only had 2 for his whole career over almost 4000 AB.....and second, the Expos as a team only had 1 other HR this season so far, hit by Warren Cromartie. More on this later.

Next up, we took a short trip to NYC to take on the Mets in a 3 game series and game 1 went pretty well. Steve Rogers gave us 6 solid innings and the offense really got to Mike Scott for 7 runs in 6.1 innings. There was some stress in the 6th inning, however, as that was when Rogers lost his stuff and the Mets tied the game at 3-3. However, in the 7th the Expos piled on 5 runs led by a pinch hit 3 run triple by Chris Smith. Chris only had 9 career AB with the Expos and then played one season as a Giant where he got 67 but hit .328 with an .895 OPS. He has become a major player for us early in the season and currently has a 1.222 OPS in 18 AB. Jeff Reardon picked up the save.

Game 2 of this series made me realize why we now have the "ghost runner" in extra innings. This was a 17 inning affair! Both teams were tied at 3-3 from the 7th inning on, but unfortunately it was the Mets that finally broke through for a run in the bottom of the 17th against Bill Lee who was still pretty tired from that 5+ inning appearance. The good news was how our bullpen performed, as Scott Sanderson piled up pitches as the starter and had to be pulled in the 5th. We then had Dave Palmer pitch 3 scoreless innings, Jeff Reardon 2 scoreless, Bert Roberge 2 scoreless and Bryn Smith gave us 4 more scoreless innings. A hard one to lose, though.

The final game of the Mets series was big because of our taxed bullpen and the fact we didn't want to lose the series. Charlie Lea went to the mound for his first start of the year and he didn't disappoint. He went 6 innings, giving up just one run. Meanwhile, we chipped away at Ed Lynch for 5 runs and came into the 7th up 5-1. David Palmer was one of the few bullpen arms with any gas left from yesterday's game so he was tasked to try to finish this one out but he couldn't quite make it as he gave up 2 more runs to make it 5-3. Not wanting to blow this one, we again turned to The Terminator. Jeff Reardon didn't have a lot left, but it was enough to pick up his 3rd save.

Going back to an earlier comment, a concern the Expos have right now is the power outage we are experiencing so far. We are 10 games into the season so far and have a total of 4 HR as a team. We aren't the worst in the majors, though, as Cleveland has only hit 2 HR all season! There are teams that seem to be hitting them- California has 18, Seattle has 16, the Dodgers have 17, etc. The good news is that our pitching isn't giving them up either- only 5 on the season. Andre Dawson and Gary Carter each hit one in the last series against the Mets so hopefully they are waking up, but it will be something to watch.

[Highlander]

I decided to move to monthly reports! I knew I should have started there in the first place!




Being only 2.5 games out of first after what I would consider a mediocre month isn’t a bad place to be. The Cardinals have a great team and will be tough to stay with, but with 3 future HOFers on our roster and two others in Al Oliver and Jeff Reardon who weren’t far off, we should be a contender. As you can see above, we have lost two in a row….a 2-1 loss to the Giants and a 1-0 loss to the Dodgers. Our pitching has been really good recently, but we just plain have to hit which we don’t always do. I have some ideas to change that I’ll discuss later on

Batting





The Good

- Tim Raines is off to a great start. He’s leading the NL in steals and is just 3 behind AL counterpart Rickey Henderson. He’s also on pace to score 130 runs and leads the league in that category as well.

- Andre Dawson has really picked things up after a very slow start. He’s got a 12 game hitting streak going right now and is on pace for 105 RBI.

- Chris Smith is someone we are trying to get more AB for whenever possible. He’s off to a great start despite limited playing time. Those 2 triples put him tied for 4th in the league. He can play a lot of places, but his defense is a bit suspect most everywhere.

- Check out Charlie Lea starting out the season 4-8!

The Bad

- Frank Taveras is killing us right now. His hitting is abysmal but the reason he’s in the lineup is for his glove….but his defensive stats are worse than Rodney Scott right now. Scott hasn’t played there a lot, but Taveras should be a lot better to warrant playing him.

- Tim Wallach had a 12 game hitting streak earlier this month, but overall his bat has been pretty weak so far. It is making things tough on Gary Carter, as Gary has been intentionally walked 7 times already.

- Chris Speier has also been very weak at the plate, but his defense is ranked in the league leaders for most positive categories, so at least he is contributing there….but that bat really needs to get at least a little better.

Pitching





The Good

- Steve Rogers has been a workhorse, on pace for 41 starts. His 4 wins so far tie him for 1st in the league.

- Charlie Lea has come up big in his 3 starts, going 6 or more innings in each one and giving up 2 or less runs.

- Jeff Reardon has lived up to his Terminator nickname so far, with his 6 saves tying him for 3rd in the league and going 12 innings so far without giving up an earned run.

The Bad

- While Bill Gullickson’s numbers look terrible, he’s actually been really good his last 3 starts…..a total of 19.1 IP and just 5 ER. It was his first couple of starts that really hurt him….10 ER in 8.2 IP.

Awards, Accomplishments, etc.

- C Brad Gulden got Player of the Month in the American Association of AAA, hitting .381 with 3 HR, 15 R and 12 RBI.

- Players of the Month (Batter/Pitcher/Rookie) for the AL were- Kent Hrbek (MIN)- .403, 7 HR, 18 R, 19 RBI, .540 OBP….Luis Tiant (CLE)- 5-0, 1.74 ERA, 41.1 IP, 24 Ks….P Pete Ladd (MIL)- 5-1, 2 Saves, 2.70 ERA, 16.2 IP, 10 Ks

- Players of the Month (Batter/Pitcher/Rookie) in the NL were- Gene Tenace (STL)- .317, 8 HR, 13 R, 22 RBI….Joaquin Andujar (STL)- 4-1, 1.82 ERA, 39.2 IP, 31 Ks….OF Willie McGee (STL)- .329, 2 HR, 3 triples, 13 R, 12 RBI

Transactions, Injuries, etc.

- Bob James, sent down earlier to make room for the newly acquired Bert Roberge, was called up as a fresh arm after that 17 inning marathon game. He actually pitched pretty well in a couple of short outings but then suffered a shoulder injury that will cause him to miss the rest of the season….6 months is the diagnosis. If he can live up to his control potential, he can be a very useful arm for us so hopefully this doesn’t derail him. He’s only 23, so he has time to recover and develop.

- A-level pitcher John Dopson was also lost for the season due to a torn rotator cuff. He’s only 18 but was off to a solid start.

- With our lineup issues this month, I am looking at shaking things up a bit by trying to play Tim Raines a little more at 2B. That can open up and OF spot for John Milner (who has a solid glove in all 3 spots) or I can move Al Oliver out to LF and have Ken Phelps play 1B. Both Milner and Phelps draw a lot of walks and have very good power….something this team needs. We’ll experiment with those options and/or working in Chris Smith a little more. I’d like to see what we have with all 3 of those guys as we head into June. Pitching-wise, our starters have seemed to be able to handle a 4-man rotation so Woodie Fryman will work back in the bullpen as another top option who can really pitch at any point in the game. If we need a starter or if a team is loaded up on LHB, I won’t hesitate to move him back.

[Highlander]

Charlie Lea and Bill Gullickson just pitched back-to-back 4-hit shutouts against the Padres. Lea won his game 8-0 as we piled up 16 hits and Gullickson won his 4-0. The game before Lea's was another 4-hitter but a 4-1 win over the Dodgers by Scott Sanderson....however, the run was unearned so we've now had 3 straight games without giving up any earned runs. We'll see if Steve Rogers can keep the streak alive.

[Highlander]

We are now playing the Dodgers and Steve Rogers pitched a complete game in a 5-1 win, but the run was unearned thanks to an error by Ken Phelps. He gave up 7 hits so the 4-hit streak is done....but the earned run streak is alive. I looked back and the last earned run we've given up was in the 7th inning of the game before Scott Sanderson's game, so that is 38 innings so far. It looks like the record is 62 by the 1914 Reds, so we've got a long ways to go, though.

[Highlander]

Ken Landreaux just hit a 2-run HR off of Scott Sanderson in the 3rd inning with 2 outs to end the streak. Just over 40 innings isn't bad! Seems like forever since we gave up a HR too....I'll have to check that one.

[Highlander]

If April could be described as “mediocre”, then May can also be described in one word….”OOF”. It was not a pretty month. The Expos struggled at the plate for much of the month and the pitching was inconsistent, leading to a 12-16 record. All things considered, it could have been much worse, but when you realize the first 11 games had us at 8-3, you realize things went downhill fast. To showcase how poor the hitting was this month, I believe we were 2nd in the league in runs scored at the end of April and we are now 11th. More on this as we go along.

Transactions, Injuries, etc.

- Moving this section here so changes can be shown before you see them in the Batting/Pitching sections. I’ll start with injuries and there was a big one this month. Our #1 starter, Steve Rogers was diagnosed with elbow tendinitis on May 26th and will miss about 2 months. The good news is that it isn’t a season ender, but the obvious bad news is that we need his stellar arm now to give us a chance to recover from a poor May. This team has playoff potential, but it will be tough without Rogers.

- That leads to one of our two big trades this month. Deals have been flying around the league…at least one per day most every day so I didn’t want to hold back. On May 19th, we made a deal for our first “non-Expo” player. There had been a strong competition at 3B between Tim Wallach and the upstart Chris Smith. After a lot of back and forth, the decision was made to go with Smith and Tim Wallach was traded, along with P Joe Hesketh to Cleveland for P Bert Blyleven and P Ed Glynn. Blyleven was brought in for two reasons. He gives us another top of the rotation starter to pair with Rogers and he allows us to send Charlie Lea to the bullpen to make it stronger. Glynn was an Expo in real life for just over 2 innings in 1985. It wasn’t long, but it is enough so that he counts! He is a lefty who has great stuff and will hopefully be an upgrade over Dave Tomlin. To finish the roster moves after this deal, Bill Lee and Tomlin were both placed on waivers and DFA’d. Brad Mills was called up from AAA. He has a decent LH bat and can play 3rd to back up Smith. Losing Hesketh in this deal hurt a little as he does have some potential, but I could turn down the opportunity to get a 31 year old Blyleven. He’s signed for 2 more years and should be a strong force in the rotation for at least that long.

- The other big deal also brought us a guy who counts toward our 4 player “non-Expo” limit. This time on the offensive side. Our defense was performing poorly with a few guys not really in positions where I wanted them- Raines at 2nd, Phelps at 1B, Oliver in LF, etc. Despite wanting to give Ken Phelps a real chance at 1B with his great power and ability to draw walks, his defense was just awful down there and his contact issues were going to be a problem sooner or later. The decision was made to move on from him and he was traded to the Yankees for 2B Willie Randolph. Willie is the same age as Ken (27) and is one of the better fielding 2B in the league, along with having a strong bat, a great eye and very good speed. He is a fantastic #2 hitter behind Raines to set the table for Oliver/Dawson/Carter, etc to drive in….at least in theory! He obviously slots into 2B, Raines goes back to LF and Oliver moves back to 1B. We lost some power, but gained defense, speed, and got a guy who can both hit for average and draw walks.

- Finally, I should mention that Dave Tomlin was not claimed by anyone on waivers and refused to be sent to AAA so he was released. He may be resigned at some point to add depth. Bill Lee was also not claimed, but he was brought back to our bullpen when Rogers went down. He will go back to his LR role and Charlie Lea was put back in the rotation.


Batting- Stats below are for May

C Gary Carter- .250/.308/.417, 11 R, 7 doubles, 3 HR, 8 RBI…..a whopping 13 RBI in total for someone who is supposed to be one of our middle of the order guys. He’s now on pace for just 17 HR and 44 RBI. Still deciding whether to extend him….he wants a pretty long deal to sign. The problem is he has a no-trade clause currently and doesn’t seem willing to go anywhere, so it seems like we either sign him or he will be a FA and we won’t have a chance to deal him if we wanted to go that way.

1B Al Oliver- .311/.359/.471, 8 R, 10 doubles, 3 HR, 15 RBI…..one of the best months by any hitter on the team. On pace for a similar season to what he had, but still below where he should be and where we need him.

2B Willie Randolph- .259/.394/.259, 1 R, 1 RBI, 3 SB….those are his numbers since coming to Montreal. It’s clear that even when he’s not hitting, he still helps the lineup by getting on base. He is signed for a couple more years.

3B Chris Smith- .280/.404/.415, 8 R, 5 doubles, 3 triples, 4 RBI….lots of pressure on Smith after being handed the 3B job. He needs more experience at the hot corner, but his potential there is solid. He hit well and is tied for the lead in triples with 5 overall.

SS Chris Speier- .343/.384/.419, 7 R, 6 doubles, 1 triple, 11 RBI….we said last month his bat needed to get better and boy did it ever! He was just about our best hitter and with his defense, he’s on pace to be a 5 WAR player for us. WIth all of that in mind, he was signed to a 2 year contract extension. He is 31 now, so we’ll have him to age 33 and can evaluate then how things are going.

LF Tim Raines- .286/.368/.412, 16 R, 6 doubles, 3 triples, 1 HR, 9 RBI, 7 SB….after 15 steals in April, Raines slowed down some in May, actually getting caught 6 times! He is still the league leader with 22 with a 5 SB lead over Alan Wiggins of San Diego. Rickey Henderson is up to 31 in the AL so he’s going to be very tough to catch. Tim is also tied for 1st in runs with 32. It seems obvious that Raines needs to be a part of this Expos team for many years to come, so he was signed to a whopping 9 year extension. That extension will start in 1984 and has a Player Opt Out after the 1988 season. I am guessing Raines will take that opt out but at least we’ve got him until age 28 with a chance he may stay until he reaches age 32. That last season is actually a team option.

CF Warren Cromartie- .267/.336/.390, 15 R, 6 doubles, 2 triples, 1 HR, 10 RBI, 1 SB….not my first choice to have in CF, but he’s the best we have for there right now and his bat has remained solid. He’s even done well against LHP.

RF Andre Dawson- .182/.274/.336, 12 R, 6 doubles, 1 triple, 3 HR, 8 RBI, 3 SB….definitely our most disappointing batter this month. He suffered though an 0-27 streak and was really bad over the last few games as well. He’s had an amazing number of chances to drive in runs (along with Carter) and just can’t do it. We need him and Gary Carter to get hot in June or we are going to be in trouble for sure.

No one on the bench did anything of note, other than Frank Taveras hitting yet another HR. That is 2 this season after just 2 his whole career before this season. 2 HR in almost 4000 AB….and now 2 HR in 54 AB! Also, we signed Rodney Scott to a 2 year extension. His speed and ability to play most anywhere are valuable enough to keep him around a while for sure.


Pitching- Stats below are for May

Steve Rogers- 3-1, 46 IP, 2.54 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 25 Ks….a huge loss from the staff. Not sure what else to say other than hopefully we will still be in it when he comes back.

Bert Blyleven- 0-2, 13 IP, 2.77 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 9 Ks…he was off to a slow start in Cleveland but has been effective with us. Really looking to him to lead the way for a while, both with IP and effectiveness. We can’t have him going too many games without wins.

Scott Sanderson- 2-4, 44 IP, 4.91 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 30 Ks….Mr. Inconsistency! He’s had 5 games with 2 ER or less and 5 games with 4 or more.

Bill Gullickson- 2-4, 52 IP, 2.77 ERA, .94 WHIP, 31 Ks….Mr. Bad Luck! The Expos have scored 2 or less runs in 9 of his 12 starts. He’s already been on the losing end of 3 shutouts and hasn’t given up more than 2 runs in any of them.

Charlie Lea- 2-1, 1 Save, 35 IP, 2.57 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 22 Ks….Charlie pitched a little in the rotation and a little in the bullpen, doing well in both places. He will remain in the rotation at least until Rogers returns.

Woodie Fryman- 0-1, 14 IP, 5.79 ERA, 1.57 WHIP, 10 Ks….A rough transition when he first went to the bullpen, but his last 7 outings have resulted in 0 ER, so he seems to be adjusting well now.

Bill Lee- 0-0, 6 IP, 1.50 ERA, .67 WHIP, 0 Ks….Not much PT, but did well with what he had.

David Palmer- 0-3, 11.1 IP, 7.15 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 11 Ks…..He gets the Ks but also gave up 3 HR this month. We need to keep shuffling guys around to see who can bridge things to Reardon. Fryman seems to be one who can, but Palmer may have lost his shot for a while.

Bert Roberge- 0-0, 9.1 IP, 12.54 ERA, 2.36 WHIP, 6 Ks…..Remember when we traded for Bert to be more effective than guys we had? Yeah….this is what a .405 BABIP looks like. So it has to get better, right?

Bryn Smith- 2-0, 20.2 IP, 1.31 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 11 Ks….Quite a month for Bryn, all out of the pen. I worry his effectiveness is a bit of a mirage with that high WHIP but hopefully he can keep working the magic.

Ed Glynn- 0-0, 4.1 IP, 6.23 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 3 Ks….Pretty small sample size and the WHIP is solid. Time will tell.

Jeff Reardon- 1-0, 5 Saves, 12 IP, 3.00 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, 3 Ks….The WHIP and lack of Ks is concerning to say the least, but he still locked down games for us. 3 of the 4 runs he gave up this month were all in one game, so take that one out and…..well, he still only had 3 Ks so that isn’t great. Hopefully just a blip.

Awards, Accomplishments, etc.

- Jim Slaton of the Brewers pitched a No-Hitter against the A’s. He walked 5 and struck out 7 on 137 pitches.

- A few other deals around the league sent prominent players to new teams. Former Expo OF Ellis Valentine was traded to the Detroit Tigers from the Mets for a trio of minor leaguers. The Padres traded 1B Broderick Perkins and a pair of minor leaguers to the Cardinals for OF Vince Coleman. He’s just 20 and in AA, but I hear he’s pretty fast. The Tigers traded Tom Brookens and a minor leaguer to Cleveland for P John Denny. Finally, the Blue Jays traded 1B Willie Upshaw and SS Alfredo Griffin to the Phillies for P Larry Christenson. Unless I am missing one, most other deals involve low impact guys and/or minor leaguers who never reached the majors in real life.

- Players of the Month (Batter/Pitcher/Rookie) for the AL were- Kent Hrbek (MIN)- .359, 17 R, 7 HR, 25 RBI, .460 OBP….John Denny (DET)- 5-0, 46.1 IP, 1.55 ERA, 32 Ks….P Frank Viola (MIN)- 2-0, 41.1 IP, 1.96 ERA, 23 Ks

- Players of the Month (Batter/Pitcher/Rookie) in the NL were- Jack Clark (SF)- .303, 16 R, 5 HR, 18 RBI….Bob Welch (LAD)- 5-0, 45.1 IP, 1.39 ERA, 31 Ks….P Cecilio Guante (PIT)- 2-0, 14.2 IP, 3.07 ERA, 20 Ks

Bottom line for June….the offense needs to pick it up in a big way. We have the starters to make a run…..we have a bullpen that should be able to hold most leads…..we just have to score.